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- Nov 24, 2008
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Sham thought he was back on kent Ridge giving talk to NUS morons. Forgot to notice he is at Columbia U, an Ivy League school where students actually have a brain. He is just repeating the often used tired analogies of Old Goat. I would have thought a senior partner at allen and Gledhill would be more creative. But apparently not. His days in the govt. has turned his brains to mush.
Nov 5, 2010
US style not for S'pore
By Tracy Quek US CORRESPONDENT
Minister for Home Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam said Singapore cannot withstand, nor it is prepared to accept, the harmful consequences of having its media like American press. -- ST PHOTO: LIM SIN THAI
NEW YORK - WITH its small population and short history, Singapore cannot withstand - nor is it prepared to accept - the possible harmful consequences of having its media become like the American press, said Minister for Home Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam.
The US media has a wider and freer role than the press in most other countries. But American society, being large, rich and stable, is strong enough to endure the potential damage of having a media that does not always live up to its ideals of being judicious, fair and independent, he said.
So what he is saying is that only large and prosperous countries can afford a free media? Is he a fucking clown? The media is even freer in communist china than it is in S'pore. There are still newspapers that can expose the corruptions there. What about singapore? Other than the size part, are we also not rich and stable? The american ideals of judicious, fair and independent, are not wholly american ideals. They are ideals shared by the whole world, from small poor countries to big rich ones.
Mr Shanmugam drew these comparisons in a speech outlining Singapore's perspective on the role of the media at Columbia University on Thursday.
The US, he told the audience at a university forum on A Free Press for a Global Society, 'has in-built stability'.
'There can be fringe lunatic behaviour, but mainstream Americans are sensible and rational, and extremist sentiment will not threaten the very fabric of society,' he noted.
There are extremist elements in every society, even in S'pore. Mainstream Singaporeans are also rational, sensible and practical. If the US govt. has enough faith in its own citizens to make the right decision when it comes to these fringe lunatic behaviours, so should the singapore govt.
In many developing societies, however, the glue holding society together is not as strong and 'these societies can easily rupture along tribal, ethnic and religious lines,' he said. n Singapore's case, racial and religious fault lines can be easily exploited.
It appears to me that this is the fault of the govt. if there not enough glue holding the society together. They have had 40 years to make it happen. There has been no evidence whatsoever that there will be ruptures along the lines he spoke. In fact, the govt.'s policy if anything has contributed to the lines of division. I recall years ago when Gay Loong was Minister for Defence saying he does not trust malays in a tine of war. Coupled to the fact that Malays are excluded from certain SAF vocations must surely create tension along racial lines, caused non other than by his own govt.
Nov 5, 2010
US style not for S'pore
By Tracy Quek US CORRESPONDENT
Minister for Home Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam said Singapore cannot withstand, nor it is prepared to accept, the harmful consequences of having its media like American press. -- ST PHOTO: LIM SIN THAI
NEW YORK - WITH its small population and short history, Singapore cannot withstand - nor is it prepared to accept - the possible harmful consequences of having its media become like the American press, said Minister for Home Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam.
The US media has a wider and freer role than the press in most other countries. But American society, being large, rich and stable, is strong enough to endure the potential damage of having a media that does not always live up to its ideals of being judicious, fair and independent, he said.
So what he is saying is that only large and prosperous countries can afford a free media? Is he a fucking clown? The media is even freer in communist china than it is in S'pore. There are still newspapers that can expose the corruptions there. What about singapore? Other than the size part, are we also not rich and stable? The american ideals of judicious, fair and independent, are not wholly american ideals. They are ideals shared by the whole world, from small poor countries to big rich ones.
Mr Shanmugam drew these comparisons in a speech outlining Singapore's perspective on the role of the media at Columbia University on Thursday.
The US, he told the audience at a university forum on A Free Press for a Global Society, 'has in-built stability'.
'There can be fringe lunatic behaviour, but mainstream Americans are sensible and rational, and extremist sentiment will not threaten the very fabric of society,' he noted.
There are extremist elements in every society, even in S'pore. Mainstream Singaporeans are also rational, sensible and practical. If the US govt. has enough faith in its own citizens to make the right decision when it comes to these fringe lunatic behaviours, so should the singapore govt.
In many developing societies, however, the glue holding society together is not as strong and 'these societies can easily rupture along tribal, ethnic and religious lines,' he said. n Singapore's case, racial and religious fault lines can be easily exploited.
It appears to me that this is the fault of the govt. if there not enough glue holding the society together. They have had 40 years to make it happen. There has been no evidence whatsoever that there will be ruptures along the lines he spoke. In fact, the govt.'s policy if anything has contributed to the lines of division. I recall years ago when Gay Loong was Minister for Defence saying he does not trust malays in a tine of war. Coupled to the fact that Malays are excluded from certain SAF vocations must surely create tension along racial lines, caused non other than by his own govt.
